Of Course You are Too Young!
by Teufel1987
Summary: Based off a story written by Fyreheart (story ID: 11271241, chapter 11). Harry Potter demands to join the Order of the Phoenix when he reaches Grimmauld Place. The adults respond.


**So I was reading this series of "What if?" one-shots by Fyreheart (aptly titled "What If") and I came across Chapter 11 titled "Too young" where Harry asks to join the order and when the adults tell him that he is too young, he has a right old rant in order to convince people that he belongs. You can find the chapter in the following story ID:**

 **s/11271241/11/What-If**

 **I talked to the author and decided to write this little story about how I think the adults would respond to the events of that chapter.**

 **You could apply it to any of the other "Harry tells every legal adult that he is a big man and not a little boy" situations that you get in the fandom featuring an indie Harry (and there are many).**

* * *

Albus Dumbledore looked impassively at Harry as the boy sat down between Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, taking care not to meet his eyes. He still wasn't sure what the nature of the mental connexion between Harry and Voldemort was, nor was he sure how it had evolved since the latter had gained a body (if it had evolved in the first place). Right now, caution was the best course of action.

Either way, that was a matter for another time. Right now, the priority was what the boy had said, and the demands he had made mere seconds after he had set foot in Grimmauld Place.

A few moments were spent in silence as the members of the Order of the Phoenix looked at their leader wondering how he would react. Albus took stock of their reactions. Sirius and Remus seemed to have been taken by the boy's speech, while a very shocked Molly Weasley was working up a second wind to express her vehement opposition. The rest seemed to be neutral. Alastor was looking at the teenager with a rather unreadable expression, which was nothing out of the ordinary. Between his scars and his rather unorthodox worldview, it was always hard to tell what Moody was thinking. The man was an impressive poker player. Minerva, predictably, had a very unimpressed look on her face. Albus had rarely seen her lips so thin.

It was unfortunate that Harry was too busy in his comical attempt to look imperious to notice his head of house.

Severus, on the other hand, was silent, his black eyes glittering. Albus knew the dark man was waiting for the right moment to make his remarks.

'It seems that we have a person requesting membership in the Order of the Phoenix,' he said lightly to the collective.

Severus, Molly and Minerva glanced at him incredulously with Molly ready to object vocally. With an imperceptible shake of his head, they quieted down. Severus, though, hadn't such a murderous expression on his face since that time two years back in Christmas when Albus had engineered to have a witch's hat with a stuffed vulture come out of a cracker he pulled with the dour man. To this day, nobody suspected him, what with Remus being a convenient scapegoat.

An idle wave of his wand had the chair Harry was sitting on float a little away from the end of the table along with the startled boy.

'There we are,' he said pleasantly. 'Might as well do this properly. This way everyone can look at the new hopeful as we examine his, ah, request.'

'What is this?' Sirius said, a tad indignantly. 'I don't recall any "examinations" being done before!'

'Well, we never had a fifteen-year-old ask to join our ranks before either, Sirius.' Dumbledore said nonchalantly. 'But here we are!'

'Well …' Sirius paused in thought. 'Fair enough I suppose.' He raised his hand. 'I vote to let Harry join.'

'A little premature, Sirius,' Dumbledore said genially. 'But I see no harm in having a preliminary vote.' He looked around. 'Those who agree with Sirius?'

Slowly, Emmeline Vance, Hestia Jones, Mundungus Fletcher, and Remus Lupin raised their hands. Albus noted that the women looked slightly reluctant.

'Those who disagree?'

Molly was the fastest to raise her hand, shortly followed by her husband with Minerva, and Alastor not far behind. Severus lazily raised his hand as if he found the whole thing beneath him.

It was best to ignore the look in the spy's eyes.

'I take it Kingsley and Nymphadora are abstaining?' Albus said, looking at the two in question.

'Yes, professor,' Nymphadora said with a slight twitch in her eye at the use of her first name.

'Very well, so it is five for and five against with two abstaining,' Albus bought his hands together in front of him as he looked in Harry's general direction. 'The applicant has mentioned a list of situations that many would consider impressive. I, myself, feel that he has faced, with aplomb, a series of ordeals that many adults wouldn't have faced in their lives. However, does this indicate his maturity, as he claims? Let's examine these situations that have been bought up. Who would like to start?'

Minerva was the first to volunteer. 'Mr Potter,' the old battle axe said as she looked at the boy. 'You mentioned the troll incident in your first year. You claim that we "left you children to face off the troll,". I would like to set the record straight here. There are two ways out of the dungeons that a troll would be most likely to use, owing to its size and intelligence. One happened to be the passage the staff took followed shortly by the Slytherin students (and thus ensuring their safety) and the other path would have led to a part of the castle far away from the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms. In hindsight, it would have been a simpler and more effective solution to have all students locked in the Great Hall, and that is a measure employed the next time we faced a similar situation,' She glanced in Sirius' direction for a moment. 'But that is neither here nor there. You were given very specific instructions to follow your prefects to your dormitory. Yet, you failed to follow these clearly stated directives to go in search of the troll. Or at least, that is what Miss Granger told us she was doing.'

'Um,' Harry was bought up short. He had forgotten that Hermione had taken the blame by claiming to have gone looking for the troll.

'Something wrong, Mr Potter?' McGonagall said tartly. 'I distinctly recall Miss Granger telling me and Professor Snape here that she had gone looking for the troll on her own, ignoring the headmaster's express instructions to go to the common rooms while you and Mr Weasley had gone to stop her. We can provide memories as well.'

'I think it would be a better idea just to get the rest of the dream team here, Minerva instead of listening to just Potter's … stories,' Severus finally said, his voice oily and a disturbing calculating gleam in his eyes.

In a few short minutes, Ron and Hermione were sitting on either side of Harry, reluctantly explaining the truth of the whole troll incident after much grilling. While it was practically ancient history, Ron still felt a little ashamed about how he was the cause of Hermione being in the bathroom in the first place. This was not helped by the fact that now everyone (including his parents) now knew how much of a colossal git he was then. And it was all thanks to his friend. He took a moment to glare at aforementioned friend before looking at the ground.

Minerva sat back and took off her glasses to clean them. 'Now that we have got to the bottom of this, I am going to give you my thoughts.' Putting her glasses on, she speared the three children with a look.

'The two of you knew that there was a student who was in potential danger. While I laud your quick thinking and eagerness in getting her to safety, I cannot help but note that neither of you thought to alert a prefect of this, especially when one of those prefects happens to be your brother, Mr Weasley. Maturity is knowing when you are in way over your head and getting help if that is the case. Even more so when the help is easily and readily accessible. A troll is most certainly more than a first year student can handle. The three of you probably had a grand total of five spells performed at the time, a majority of which would be credited to Miss Granger. It was only sheer blind luck that saved the day, not any uncommon skill. In short, you faced a rather dangerous situation and got out because you were _lucky,_ Mr Potter, especially since your solution was to shove your wand up its nose as you physically wrestled with it. It is fortunate that you saved Miss Granger's life, but I do not see how this can be considered any grounds in allowing you to join the Order. If anything, this only proves that you were not mature enough then to be allowed to participate in anything that the Order does.'

Severus then spoke up 'Now that Professor McGonagall has got that out of the way.' He leant forward, a dangerous gleam in his eyes, 'Care to explain that comment about the cursed broom incident, Potter?' he said silkily.

He studied the three guilty looking students intently. 'I remember that incident,' he said softly. 'Quirrell was jinxing your broom, Potter. You would have been dead in mere seconds had I not intervened. In fact, it was my efforts that kept you alive long enough that everyone noticed the problem you were having with your broom. And, believe it or not, Potter, I was an adult then. Still am in fact.'

He ignored Black's snort.

'I also distinctly remember something else about that incident. I distinctly remember noticing my robes catching fire the moment I felt the jinx slip off your broom.'

He sneered at the three, 'So which one of you was it? It couldn't be Potter, no. He was too busy hanging on for his life to do anything useful.' Black eyes snapped to an ashen Ron. 'I doubt it was Weasley either. He is far too inept to cast any meaningful spell even after four years of education. That leaves…' he looked at Hermione, a darkening expression on his face as he hissed, 'Granger.'

Hermione gave a small 'meep' as she rapidly paled under the potions master's wrath. She had never seen him so apocalyptic with rage. Well there was that one time when they had lobbed a firecracker in Goyle's potions in second year, but that expression was nothing compared to this.

'Well, it wasn't her fault,' Ron finally said. 'She did spot you staring at Harry without blinking while muttering.'

'Is that so?' Snape said waspishly.

'Yeah,' Ron continued, not seeing Hermione's frantic attempts at stopping him. 'And she knocked Quirrell over too. That was how she saved Harry!'

'I see,' Snape still hadn't taken his eyes away from Hermione. 'So it was Granger's bumbling that eventually saved the day.' He paused for a moment, lip curling. 'I wonder what would have happened if Granger had been a little … less clumsy. Why, Potter wouldn't have seen his second year.' He gave a very unpleasant smile. 'If only.'

'I – I am very, very s-sorry about putting you on fire, sir,' Hermione said in a small voice. The last thing she was expecting was this to be brought up.

'Of course you are,' Snape said with a patently insincere smile as he stared daggers into the girl. She had no idea how painful the year's potions classes were going to be. He would have so loved to have failed the girl right there and then (or get her expelled outright) but there were far too many witnesses, his boss among them. No, he was going to find other, more subtle ways, to make her suffer.

Hermione winced at that. Fifth year was going to be even more hellish now that Snape knew about who had set him on fire. It was quite clear that the man had held quite a grudge. And it was all thanks to her dear friend Harry, who she sent a momentary dirty look.

Not that the git noticed it.

Severus, however wasn't finished. 'Oh, but of course, Potter, how silly of me to forget how highly skilled the three of you are. I am sure Miss Granger fully knew who the actual culprit was.' He said in a mocking tone. 'After all, us adults pale in comparison to the mighty skills of Harry Potter, his wonderful sidekick Ron Weasley and The Most Knowledgeable Witch in all of History, Hermione Granger. Perhaps you would like to share with us ignorant adults about the methods in which you can identify a possessed human?' he looked at the boy expectantly. 'No answer? Perhaps your incredibly smart friend here has one?' He glared at Hermione maliciously. 'Will you look at that? Miss Granger doesn't have an answer. My, the heavens must be falling around our ears by now!' he sneered. 'It is a pity, though. I certainly was looking forward to hearing about something no one has invented yet in a subject that is very rare and obscure.'

'What Severus is trying to say,' Albus said pointedly. 'Is that there are no known methods by which one can detect a possessed person. Possession is very rare and very dark magic. If identifying a possessed person was possible, there is a good chance that Miss Weasley's first year would have gone by very differently.'

Snape scoffed. 'Minerva, if you would be so kind as to continue? I am sure we all would love to hear more about the "adventures" Potter and his merry band of dimwits have been up to.'

'Perhaps if you would allow me?' Dumbledore said pleasantly. Seeing a nod of approval, he looked in Harry's direction.

'Harry, I would like to bring up a point I had made years back when we first met immediately after your encounter with Quirrell. It was the strain of being a voluntary host of Voldemort's that killed Professor Quirrell. You merely debilitated him. He would have survived had he not allowed Voldemort inside him. So I hope you understand that you did not kill him at all. It is not your fault.'

'But it doesn't change the fact that I fought for my life at the end of my first year against Lord Voldemort himself!'

'Well, about that,' Dumbledore said slowly. 'Why did you feel that you had to go after the man yourself? Surely, alerting a member of the staff would have been a far more logical solution if you felt that the security that we had employed lacking?'

'I did,' Harry said petulantly. 'We tried to warn Professor McGonagall that Voldemort was after the stone, but she did not listen to us!'

'You did no such thing,' McGonagall fired back immediately. 'All you told me was that you were sure that "someone" was after the stone. I am sorry to say this, Mr Potter, but that wasn't much of a warning. It is an artefact that can gift a person unlimited wealth and immortality. Anyone would be after it. It was the reason why there were precautions put in place to begin with. I assure you, we did not set up all those obstacles for a laugh. I would have been more receptive to believing you had you told me that You Know Who was after the stone. Especially since you actually knew that he was after the item in question!'

'Regardless,' she said overriding anything the boy was about to say. 'I had gone to check on those security precautions that I just mentioned. And guess what I found when I reached the third floor, because of which I got thoroughly distracted from my objective.' She looked at the three of them beadily. 'Two first years who were _expressly_ told not to be there!'

'You showed incredible bravery in standing up to Voldemort that night, Harry.' Dumbledore said quietly. 'But that confrontation was not necessary. The mirror room was set up as a trap, with the rooms preceding it mere time-consuming obstacles anyone could have passed through. Any thief would have to face not only the cursed fire, but thirty-two nigh indestructible stone chess pieces. I had hoped to engineer a confrontation with a weakened Voldemort in hopes of capturing him. Alas, things did not turn out that way.'

'So you endanger an entire school full of children?' Harry asked challengingly.

'My dear boy,' Dumbledore said, for the first time sounding a little irritated. 'I would never knowingly endanger a single student in my school, let alone the whole school. Unfortunately for me, I had no choice. I had heard rumours from some of my contacts that indicated that Voldemort had somehow made his way back to Britain. I knew for a fact that he was looking for a way to get his body back, and I knew that he was directing his energy and available resources into obtaining the Philosopher's Stone to attain that goal. I did not anticipate Quirrell assisting him in such a … unique way or being a servant of his much less a willing servant. What I did know was that if I had hidden the Stone too effectively, he would have then directed all his focus on abducting you.' He considered his intertwined fingers for a moment. 'I thought that it was easier and more moral to try and set a trap and gamble an inanimate object compared to using a live human as bait, as certain ... pragmatic individuals have advised me. I knew that he was far too weak and mistrusting of his old followers to try anything overt. He also wasn't going to risk public exposure before he regained enough strength to make his move. Tom always preferred to attack when he had the advantage.' He sighed, this time looking at the ceiling. 'Hindsight has gifted me with a variety of alternatives, but alas, it is far too late to implement them. The most I can do is learn from my mistakes.'

McGonagall spoke up again. 'You claim that the "entire school turned against you" in your second year when it became known that you were a Parselmouth, Potter. I would like to know what you mean by that. Because I did not notice nor was I notified of any attempts of verbal physical or magical violence being made upon your person. Of course, there are incidences that could have escaped mine or my prefects' notice, especially considering the tumultuousness of the times, so if you please…' she looked at him expectantly.

Hermione was quick to answer. 'Well, professor, I don't remember anyone trying to jinx or curse Harry.' She looked over at Ron. 'Did you see anything? Aside from Fred and George's antics, which the three of us found funny, there wasn't much of a backlash. All people did was try to avoid Harry because they were afraid of him.'

'Yeah,' Ron replied. 'It was a bit depressing, but that was about it. People were too scared to try any name-calling, threats or teasing.'

'I see,' McGonagall said neutrally. 'And for how long was this behaviour going on?'

'Well, I think people forgot all about it after the Christmas hols,' Ron said, screwing his face up in thought. 'Yeah, definitely. By the time they had returned, things were pretty much normal. Well, except for Ernie. He still thought Harry was the culprit. He was the only one who publicly accused him of being behind the attacks.'

McGonagall's lips thinned. 'Mr Potter, had Mr Macmillan or his friends threatened you in any way?'

'No, there were no threats' Harry finally bit out. 'But everyone basically acted as if I was diseased or something. It took Hermione being petrified for Ernie, Susan and the rest to realise how wrong they were.'

There was a long moment of silence.

Then Snape sneered. 'Potter, you do realise that using the Imperius Curse on another human is illegal and carries an automatic life sentence in Azkaban, don't you?'

The boy sputtered in indignation. 'Of course I do!'

Minerva decided to interrupt before things got out of hand. 'Potter,' she said briskly. 'By yours and your friends' admission, there were no threats, instances of bullying, or any direct action taken against you in that short time. What the rest of the school did in reaction to your gift was motivated by panic and fear. We can legitimately police actions and verbalised threats, not mute thoughts and feelings. Nor can we expect to or be expected to instruct students how to feel. While I can sympathise with you over what you went through, since nothing developed past that stage, there is nothing we could do and there was nothing anyone could expect us to do.'

'I think we should consider this matter closed, Harry,' Remus said softly when he saw Harry about to start arguing. A pointed look had the teen subsiding.

'Now, the basilisk incident,' Professor McGonagall said. 'Remind me again, Potter, how did you end up facing the basilisk alone?'

'Well,' Harry began, 'There was a cave-in because Lockhart tried to cast a memory altering spell on Ron and I using Ron's broken wand. The wand exploded, and the spell backfired on Lockhart causing him to lose his memory and separating me from Lockhart and Ron.'

'Hmmm, and why did Lockhart use Weasley's broken wand?'

'I just told you, he tried to cast a memory charm on us!'

The professor just gave him a very pointed look. Harry cleared his throat and muttered. 'Alright, he took Ron's wand because he didn't have his and Ron was the closest person with a wand.'

'That's better,' McGonagall commented. 'How was he divested of his wand?'

'I disarmed him in his office when he was first going to cast a memory charm on us to make us forget that he had admitted to being a fraud.' Harry stated. 'Not that we were surprised at the time, considering how incompetent he was,' he muttered.

That statement resulted in a lot of raised eyebrows, frowns and narrowed eyes amongst the adults. Mr and Mrs Weasley glanced at each other, both trying to process the fact that their son and his best friend had come very close to losing their memories twice in one night while their daughter's lives literally depended on the boys.

Alastor Moody then spoke up. 'So let me get this straight,' he growled, both eyes fixed on Harry. 'You and Weasley had a good idea about where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was located, and you knew for a fact what was lurking in the chamber. You also suspected that your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was incompetent. And you have it confirmed that he was an utter fraud from his own mouth when you confronted him. And your solution was to take this incompetent fraud, completely unarmed no less, with you.'

Moody paused for a long moment, staring at the two boys.

'Oh, and let's not forget, you had one working wand between the three of you.'

There was a very long silence that was soon broken by Mrs Weasley.

'WHAT. WERE. YOU TWO. _THINKING_?!'

'W-well, it was the best idea we could come up with!' Her youngest son bleated. 'We were in shock! We had just heard from Professor McGonagall that Ginny had been taken. And then we remembered that all the other teachers had told Lockhart to find the monster … so we thought it would be the best idea to go to him!'

'How did you know that the we had told Lockhart to deal with the Chamber?' the aforementioned professor McGonagall asked suspiciously. 'I do not recall that conversation being held in public.'

'Haven't you figured it out, Minerva?' Severus said silkily, looking as if Christmas had come early. 'The Wonder Boys were clearly hiding in the staffroom. Probably in the wardrobe, if I had to guess.' Catching sight of their expression, he smiled unpleasantly.

'Why were you in the staffroom, Mr Potter?' Minerva McGonagall finally asked with a resigned air.

'We had just found out that the monster was a basilisk after reading that book page Hermione had clutched in her petrified hand,' Harry said reluctantly.

'Ah,' was all Minerva could say in response as she closed her eyes.

Slowly, she rubbed her forehead, 'If memory serves me right, we got wind of the second message and Miss Weasley's disappearance sometime late in the morning. I distinctly remember the two of you sitting with your brothers when I gave the announcement. And you appeared with Ginny late in the night. Which means that you only started towards the Chamber at, I would guess, somewhere early in the night.'

'Yes?' Harry finally said.

There was a sudden noise on his right. Turning, he caught Sirius banging his head on the table a second time as his godfather groaned.

Snape however, actually started chuckling. 'You two dunderheads had an _entire day_ to notify a competent adult or get the message to a competent adult via a prefect. And you decide ultimately to go to a blithering fool. And then, after you disarm him, you take the same blithering fool into the Chamber to face off a thousand-year-old basilisk. Two second years with one and a half wands and an unarmed nincompoop against an ancient powerful snake that can kill with its gaze, its massive body or its highly poisonous fangs failing which it could just swallow its victims whole. You know what, Potter, I take back all those things I said about you being like your father.' He paused for effect. 'Because James Potter wasn't as much of an imbecile as you are.'

Quick as a whip, he turned to Sirius who had opened his mouth. 'Don't say a word, Black, you know I am right!'

'Oh come on!' Harry finally said hotly. 'We were twelve for Merlin's sake!'

'Is that right?!' Molly finally said tartly. 'You spent all this time telling us how much of a man you are and now you want to backtrack and say that you were too young?' She scoffed.

'And another thing,' she said loudly before Harry could argue further. 'Arthur told me that he had warned you about Sirius Black being after you. He also told me that you had overheard the two of us talking about it. So I want to know what you were thinking being out of the castle late at night when you encountered, "a hundred dementors"?!'

'Yes, Potter,' Minerva McGonagall said in a disapproving tone. 'I had also talked to you about the possibility of Black being after you. I know Hagrid had done the very same thing when you had gone to visit him one evening.'

'Oh, but that's not all,' Snape said softly, smiling unpleasantly again. 'I caught him using one of the secret passages to Hogsmeade. Isn't that right, Lupin? I did call you over to my office over the matter...'

Remus took a deep breath before nodding, looking both regretful and very grim.

'YOU WENT TO HOGSMEADE?! AND THAT TOO WITHOUT PERMISSION?! WHEN YOU _KNEW_ THAT A DANGEROUS PERSON WAS AFTER YOU?!'

This was the first time Harry was being yelled at by Ron's mother. He found that he did not like the experience at all.

'I – that is to say that – uh-,'

'Do you see now, Minerva, what I have been trying to tell you all this time? This is typical Potter,' Severus said snidely. He was enjoying this. 'Always thinks he is above the rules and does whatever he wants. And when he gets himself out of the fix he has landed himself in because of his monumental idiocy, he sits there and blames us. When everyone from the Minister of Magic downwards is trying to keep him safe, he decides to go wherever he pleases and disregard instructions given to him for his own safety. As far as he is concerned, all of us are imbeciles who know nothing.'

The silence that followed was thick with disapproval.

'But Sirius wasn't after me,' Harry finally said petulantly. 'He is one of the good guys!'

'What if I wasn't?' Sirius said softly. 'What if Bellatrix Lestrange had escaped instead of me?' he said, looking at the table sullenly. 'And she was quite vocal and clear about what she wanted to do to you and Neville Longbottom if she ever got her hands on the two of you.'

'It is unfortunate that you had to come in contact with the dementors, Potter,' said Minerva. 'Placing those beasts at Hogwarts was a decision made by the Minister and the head of the Aurors because of the perceived threat towards you. It was only thanks to Albus' intervention that the foul things were not stationed inside the grounds of the school as they originally planned. Aside from the Quidditch incident, we had anticipated and planned for all their movements. And that includes them boarding the train to search for Black. It is the main reason why Remus was on that train.'

'Well, to be fair, Professor McGonagall,' Tonks said hesitatingly, 'He did manage to repel a hundred dementors at once. That is quite impressive for a thirteen-year-old.'

'I agree, Miss Tonks,' Minerva said tartly, 'But that only indicates his potential talent, not his maturity as he so claims.' Her nostrils flared. 'And I am finding that distinctly lacking at the moment. Oh and dear, again it's "Minerva". I have stopped being your professor a long time back. I think you mature enough to call me by my first name now.' She said, glancing at Harry to make her point clear.

'I think you are right, Minerva,' Kingsley said slowly in his booming voice. 'The boy does show a lot of promise. I along with my fellow Aurors watched the first two tasks of the Triwizard Tournament. While we had taken every measure to ensure that the champions were all safe, those tasks were still difficult. It is impressive to be able to complete those tasks. But it does not show that he is mature enough for the Order.'

'Also, the boy is of no use to us at the moment,' Moody's gravelly voice rumbled with an air of finality.

'That's not true!' Harry said hotly.

'Oh?' Moody raised an unimpressed eyebrow. 'You are a schoolboy. At the moment underage. Any and all magic you perform will be registered and tracked by the Ministry. There is no way we could use you for any of our tasks because it would require magic being performed. Not only that, but you will be holed up in Scotland for the rest of the year. So that means there is nothing we can have you do for us. Also, I doubt you would last against a Death Eater for more than a minute.'

'I duelled Voldemort!'

Moody sneered, his face looking positively terrifying. 'That was luck and you know it, boy! Voldemort had underestimated you and he made some mistakes. Not only that, but he did not anticipate your wands acting in such a fashion. If you wish to see adulthood, I suggest that you don't get too cocky and mistake luck for skill.' He stabbed a finger at his face. 'Do you want to know how I got all these scars boy? I got them from fighting dark wizards and witches ten times more ruthless, skilled, knowledgeable in magic and dangerous than all of you _children_ combined. And I include those three sitting upstairs and eavesdropping on this conversation while thinking that they have hoodwinked us.'

Molly immediately stood up and pointed her wand at the door. A flash and bang later she sat down muttering to herself. People softly chuckled at the quiet cursing on the other side of the door.

'So no, I do not see why we should allow you to participate in our discussions or give you any sensitive data when there is nothing you can contribute.' Moody continued speaking as if Molly hadn't done anything.

'I told you that Voldemort had made it his top priority to kill me!' Harry said hotly.

Moody laughed. 'You don't even fit in the top ten of the dark wanker's priorities, boy.' He scoffed. 'He actually has other things he'd rather do first than kill you.'

'Like what?' Harry asked quickly.

'Wouldn't you want to know,' The grizzled former Auror said just as quickly. He sat back and took a moment to gather himself. 'I think I am done with this dragon dung. I'll admit that the kid has skill, and he has gone through things I haven't faced when I was his age. But that is about it. It doesn't make him eligible for participating in anything we discuss. He can't do fuck, and he hasn't got the skill to do what we would want done.'

Albus coughed delicately. 'Does anyone want to add anything else?' He looked around him to see a table full of very grim faces. 'No? Very well then, how about a final vote. All those in favour of allowing Harry Potter into the Order of the Phoenix?'

Nobody moved a muscle. Harry gazed beseechingly at Sirius, but the man did not meet his gaze, indeed, he had yet to stop gazing at the table contemplatively.

'Ah, and those against?'

This time everyone with the exception of Sirius raised their hands.

'Sirius, you wish to abstain?' Albus asked cordially.

Sirius took a deep breath and then looked at everyone. 'While I do realise now that it would not be a good idea to have Harry in our ranks at the moment. I think,' he said slowly, as if measuring every word. 'That it would be prudent to share some, and I mean _some_ information with the children so that they might be better informed. Of course, we shouldn't compromise on security. But I think some general facts can be mentioned. While I do enjoy the little game we've been having with the twins with them trying to get information from us and us detecting and countering it, I think we have other priorities to focus on.'

Remus nodded. 'That is a good idea, Sirius. Also, it would reduce the amount of frustration I can see in the kids. That can only be a good thing.'

'A fair assessment, Sirius, Remus,' Dumbledore said with a nod. 'Any objections?'

'It is a good idea,' Minerva said briskly. Snape just nodded curtly, adding his two Knuts by saying, 'I am all for anything that might reduce the headaches I will have to face due to the criminal idiocy,' he glanced at the three children, 'of certain people,'

As one, all turned then to look at Molly. The woman spent a long moment thinking before finally saying reluctantly. 'I suppose that is alright. Remus and,' here she definitely sounded reluctant. 'Sirius are right. Anything to lessen the headaches those two are giving me.'

Everyone else chuckled at her reference to Fred and George.

'Very well,' Dumbledore finally said. 'So we are all in agreement then that while Harry Potter is not allowed to join the Order at the moment, some information will be disseminated to the Hogwarts going children so that they are able to make decisions that could keep them safe?' Seeing nods all around, he nodded as well.

'Excellent, so the motion passes. Sirius, Remus, Molly, Arthur, Minerva and I shall discuss the details of what should be shared after tonight's meeting.' He then gazed in the direction of the children. 'Ronald, I think it would be best if you and Hermione were to now show Harry where he will be sleeping for the rest of your holidays here.'

Between the finality of his headmaster's tone and the disapproving looks he was getting from every single adult in the room, Harry had no comeback to give. The teen sullenly slouched out of the room followed by his friends who were giving him rather unhappy looks.

'I think the past few weeks have got to him,' Tonks finally said in the silence that followed.

'You might be right, Nymphadora,' Albus commented. 'This is rather out of character for Harry.' He ignored Snape's derisive sneer for the moment. It would be best to let the man have his small victories, because right now he had to come up with a strategy for curbing the Potions' Master's ire towards Hermione Granger.

And speaking of which…

He looked at his deputy who raised an eyebrow. He knew that she had also taken note of the boy's entire tirade including the insinuations he had made towards his home life. It was good that he was going to be having that meeting with all the people who were interested in Harry's life. There clearly were many pressing issues to discuss other than how much and what to tell the children. Perhaps he should make it clear through Sirius that the boy should avoid the Department of Mysteries at all costs. The Prophecy was nothing more than a distraction to keep Voldemort occupied from pursuing his true goals.

Sighing, Albus focused his energies on the report Kingsley was giving. The war that was coming was going to make or break people.

He hoped it did not break Harry.


End file.
